UN General Assembly President deletes tweet about his visit to Armenian Genocide Memorial

UN General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid and his delegation on Wednesday visited Genocide Memorial in Yerevan as part of a working visit in Armenia and posted a tweet saying “Laid a wreath at the Memorial to the victims or Armenian Genocide.”

But soon after, he deleted the tweet due to pressure from the Turkish government, Zartonk Media said.

The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a statement criticizing Abdulla’s remarks.

“Mr. Shahid… would have been expected to act in a fair and impartial manner, to be more careful and responsible in this regard” the statement read. 

Turkish media also attacked Shaid because of the visit and said that Turkey’s attitude backed him off and made him delete his tweet. 

“Shahid had been invited to the Ambassadors Conference to be held in August in Ankara but now the invitation is pulled back,” Yeni Safak said. 

Abdulla Shahid, who is also the foreign minister of Maldives, visited Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan and other Armenian officials to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the membership of the Republic of Armenia in the United Nations Organization.

The incident came at a time when Turkey and Armenia stepped up efforts for normalization as the two sides recently agreed to commence direct air cargo trade and enable the crossing of the land border by third-country citizens.

On top of that, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a phone call and emphasized the importance of normalization between Ankara and Yerevan which have frozen relations since early 1990’s, due to Armenia’s conflict with Azerbaijan regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh region.